Northwoods League Opening Day 2022

All photos of Kenosha Kingfish 2022 Home Opener available on Flickr. 

In the Before Time, before Covid and children, it was a regular occurrence for me (and eventually Megan) to attend at least one home opener somewhere in the Northwoods League.  It's one of my favorite days on the baseball calendar and something I would typically plan and look forward to weeks in advance.  Well, 2022 is no longer those times, but Megan and I still made perhaps the most impulsive decision to go to a game in our history.  We snagged three of the scarcely remaining seats left for the Kenosha opener the night before, and drove down for a 4:05 Memorial Day first pitch.  It would be my first Northwoods League Opener in 5 years, and despite getting to watch only a few innings with two small kids in tow, it was so nice to be out at the ballpark on a beautiful afternoon.

One thing for anyone to always expect at an Opening Day in any summer collegiate league is that anything involving a POS or a staff member will just be a nightmare.  I will freely admit that I have the least patience of anybody I know, but even going in fully anticipating the disaster, it still tested my limits.  We started our day at the ballpark by waiting in a line for a half-hour just to pick up our tickets from Will Call.  After getting to our seats nearly a full inning late, we took in a couple innings and our next adventure was at the concessions stand.  This moved a little faster because they had a few menu items pre-prepared, but if you ordered anything that was not one of those items it took forever.  Later in the game, we completely abandoned our attempt at the ice cream line and went to Culver's after the game instead.  Thankfully the one line in the entire park that was fast was the beer line, and I managed to suck down a couple of shandys while chasing a couple kids in the play area and trying to sneak a peak at the field once in awhile.  I would implore anyone who does attend a NWL opener to just be as patient and kind as possible.  The reason these are always a shit-show is these teams hire seasonally with a completely new staff every summer, and comprised almost entirely of student labor.  They all come in wide-eyed learning a system that is either brand new or has been dormant for 9 months and there are understandably going to be hiccups, not to mention the fact that not all of the towns and parks these teams play in have the best internet connection.

Nothing much different at the park since my last visit with Molly last summer.  We sat in the left field corner and I did notice that the left field wall seemed considerably shorter than in years past, not sure if that is new or I never noticed before.  But there was a ball hit to deep left in the 2nd and the guy caught it up against the fence, and he could basically sit on top of the fence to catch the ball if he wanted to.  At some point a ball is going to be smoked out there and send a player careening onto a picnic table, which would certainly make the Sportscenter Top 10 now that the league is on ESPN+.  The kids area and concessions areas have mixed up a little bit per usual, but otherwise business as usual for the Kingfish - and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.  Even the prices were not too drastically different during a time in which everything is skyrocketing in price, and that did not go unnoticed.

We ended up leaving in the 7th inning because, well, a 50-minute drive trying to keep 2 kids awake was awaiting us, and K-Zoo had just put up a 6-spot on K-Hole so we figured the game was in hand.  But, as always happens when you leave early, we missed a lot of action.  The Kingfish ended the game with 7 unanswered runs and won the opener 9-7.  We got to our seats just as Drake Westcott was going yard in the bottom of the 1st and he ended up getting on base 4 times in the game with 2 of the team's 11 hits.  Clark Candiotti (unsure if any relation to Tom) gave up 1 unearned run over 5.  Most of the damage on the day was charged to Jacob Gehring who came on in relief of Candiotti and promptly surrendered 5 runs in an inning of work.  Everybody in the Growlers lineup had at least 1 hit, but it was a death by thousand cuts as Daniel Pruitt had their only extra-base hit of the day.  Generally there is always a son or two of a former ballplayer in a Northwoods game, and sure enough, Craig Counsell's son Brady played 2nd and batted 6th for the Kingfish.  He is a freshman at the U of M and went 2-5 with a walk.  I'll for sure be watching to see if the schedules align when the Kingfish are home on a Brewers off-day to see if I can spot Dad in the stands.

Another exciting Northwoods League season and an unofficial start to summer is upon us, and I am super excited to visit the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek parks with my daughter in July!

2022 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 1
Peter - 6